Janet "Jan" Morrison

After a two and one-half year battle with cancer, Jan Morrison passed away on August 30, 2011. Janet (Olson) Howard Morrison, the daughter of William and Myrtle Olson, was born July 14, 1936 in Iowa City, Iowa. She was a graduate of Iowa City High School and the University of Iowa, where she was a member of Gamma Phi Beta sorority. Active in the Girl Scouts herself, she then spent many years counseling and teaching women to be leaders. She enjoyed taking girls camping, mountain climbing in Colorado and Alaska, and trips to Mexico and Washington D.C. In 1958, she moved to Portland, Oregon to teach school and lived with her “other family” Arthur and Helen Fry. She married Richard Howard, and her family increased immediately with stepchildren Jan and Peter followed by daughter Judy. Divorced from Richard, she and Judy stayed in Portland and Jan continued to teach school. She began her lifetime interest in politics beginning with Mark Hatfield’s governor campaign. In 1961 she married H.C. Neil Morrison and daughters Maria and Carla were born. In 1965 the family was transferred to Oklahoma City and spent the next 10 years there. Jan again became active as a Girl Scout leader and counselor. When the girls became competitive swimmers, she also qualified as an AAU swimming official, traveling throughout the Midwest. She did substitute teaching, was elected to the School Board, and continued volunteering in political campaigns. While serving as a counselor at Casady School, she also began working for Oklahoma Governor Dewey Bartlett, and later in Bartlett’s Senatorial campaign. When the family was transferred to Omaha NE in 1975, she continued her work with the girls’ swimming programs and many political campaigns. Ultimately she became the District Office Manager for Congressman Hal Daub. Divorce came in 1984. Five years later she moved to Sandpoint Idaho to care for Helen Fry, her “second mother” during her last years in Ponder Point. Hired by Bonner County in 1989 as Idaho’s first full time Risk Manager, Jan subsequently was also given the job of Personnel Director. She held these positions until 2001 when she retired. Her political interest in campaigns continued during her lifetime in Bonner County as her contribution to the community. Getting qualified people elected to public office was always her goal. She was particularly known for her passionate love of NCAA and NFL football, NBA basketball and Gonzaga’s Bulldog Basketball. She is survived by three daughters: Judy Howard, Ellensburg WA; Maria Morrison, San Francisco CA; and Carla Morrison, Boulder CO. The light and love of her life, her granddaughter Grace Howard, resides with her mom in Ellensburg. Her stepchildren Peter and Jan reside in San Diego, and stepson Cullen is in Minneapolis MN. Also surviving is a brother Paul and wife Janet Olson of Portland OR, sister Jo Ann and husband Bruce Schurman of Wheaton IL, sister-in-law Jean Olson of Racine WI, and many nieces and nephews and their children. She was preceded in death by her parents, William and Myrtle, and two brothers Richard and William Jr. and Arthur and Helen Fry. In lieu of flowers, the family requests a memorial donation to Cancer Society or a charity of your choice. Funeral services will be conducted on Saturday, September 3, 2011 at Coffelt’s Funeral Chapel at 1:00 pm. Inurnment will be in the family plot at Grandview Cemetery in Bonners Ferry.